Federal Agencies Compete to Recycle and Reuse Electronic Products; Challenge Results in More than 15.8 Million Pounds of Electronics Reused or Recycled

A total of 137 facilities participated in the Campaign and eight teams from six Federal agencies will be awarded for their efforts in performing responsible end-of-life electronics stewardship.  The teams, who will receive their awards in February, are from the U.S. Departments of Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, Interior, Justice, and Treasury.

In the 2009 America Recycles Day Presidential Proclamation, President Barack Obama said, “Recycling improves our daily lives and helps to protect our planet for the future.  Through recycling, we conserve energy, consume less of our precious natural resources, decrease the amount of waste deposited in landfills, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” 

“With new electronic products consistently being introduced into the marketplace, the rate of electronic waste in the United States is on the rise,” said Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.  “While we rely heavily on a wide range of electronics to do our jobs, as Federal employees, we also must be responsible when it comes to disposing of them.  The winning teams are working to reduce waste and responsibly reuse valuable resources, while protecting our environment.”

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that across the Federal government 10,000 computers are disposed of each week.  Covering activities from October 1, 2008, through September 30, 2009, Federal agencies and their facilities competed to see who could reuse and recycle the most electronic products.  Through the ERRC, the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive challenged Federal agencies to donate and recycle excess or surplus electronics.  The ERRC assisted Federal agencies and facilities in understanding the electronics disposition process at end-of-life and helped them implement environmentally sound electronics management.  Environmentally sound electronics disposition is required by Executive Order 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance. 

The ERRC participants are responsible for an estimated:

• Annual energy savings of 907 million kilowatt hours (kWh), equivalent to the annual energy use of approximately 75,000 U.S. households;
• Annual greenhouse gas savings of 47,100 metric tons of carbon equivalents (MTCE), equivalent to removing 31,600 passenger cars from the road per year;
• Annual municipal solid waste savings of 15.8 million pounds, equivalent to avoiding solid waste generated by 3,611 U.S. households per year; and
• Life cycle energy cost savings of $85.8 million.

The following eight winning teams of the 2008-2009 ERRC will receive recognition for their electronics reuse and recycling activities:

Small Facility Winners – 500 employees or fewer
Small Civilian Facility
U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service Herndon
34,114 pounds

Small Military Facility
U.S. Department of Defense
104th Fighter Wing, Barnes Air National Guard
425 pounds

Medium Facility Winners – 501 to 2,500 employees
Medium Civilian Facility
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service, Kearneysville, West Virginia
142,036 pounds

Medium Military Facility
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Coast Guard Academy
47,693 pounds

Large Facility Winners – More than 2,500 employees
Large Civilian Facility
U.S. Department of Energy
Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico
400,119 pounds

Large Military Facility
U.S. Department of Defense
Fort Bragg
1,313,894 pounds

Agency Award for Facility Level Participation
U.S. Department of the Treasury
2,028,627 pounds

Agency Award for Centralized Agency Level Participation
U.S. Department of Justice
3,264,646 pounds

###